Atari founder Nolan Bushnell tells All Things D that the smart money is no longer going into smartphones as the industry shifts to focus on new platforms.

"All the money's out," Bushnell told the publication. "Do I really want to do a mobile game that's one of 300,000, where discoverability is everything? You really have to have a little more sizzle on the steak."

Bushnell went on to say that companies that have succeeded in the past tended to be early adopters of new technologies and were willing to take risks on them.

Bushnell thinks the next "big things" are Google Glass and Oculus Rift.

"I think the next big game opportunity is Google Glasses [sic]," Bushnell said. "If I told you all my ideas for it, I'd have to kill you. And the Oculus Rift. The game business reinvents itself every five years. The last five years have been the days of mobile gaming and shortform gaming, exemplified by Rovio with Angry Birds and Zynga with FarmVille. And that is over."

Even if those platforms don't wind up as ubiquitous as smartphones, Bushnell said he would "rather be one of 100 apps for Google Glass than one of 300,000 for iOS and Android."

Comments

I think such devices like Google Glass and the Oculus Rift are on the road to "next generation" but I don't believe they'll actually reach their desired goal.

Their concepts and technology are certainly interesting but somewhat intrusive in terms of design and usability. Whilst I certainly do believe smartphones will become "outdated" at some point, I'm not 100% convinced the world is ready for objects that will potentially "replace" their field-of-view.

Google Glass isn't something you can just "take off" and put into your pocket like a smartphone. It's so much easier to take a smartphone in and out of your pocket than to take a pair of glasses on and off your face - take this from someone who has been wearing glasses since he was 3.

In saying that, the truly innovative and revolutionary is never fully realised until years after it's initial release, and I believe it'll take that long before we truly understand the effects and benefits of an augmented-reality system that's potentially always in your face.